From a quiet corner in his expertly tended garden, John Lloyd Cruz gazes at his new 1,100-square-meter home in Antipolo City.
He has anointed this quiet corner, with its little patch of grass-covered land in the area between the guesthouse and the pool area's shower room, as his favorite spot in the entire property.
From here, seated in one of the outdoor steel chairs, he can see everything—the pool, the lanai whose glass-door backdrop offers a faint view of the main living area, the second-floor balcony that leads to his room, and the guesthouse. From here, as any romantic would admire a breathtaking sunset, John Lloyd takes pleasure in the fruits of his 13 years of hard work.
Thirteen years into the business that he never dreamed of ending up in (as a boy, he wanted to be a pilot), John Lloyd's career has reached top-flight level. Just consider his box-office showing in the last three years alone.
One More Chance (2007), his fifth movie with perennial screen partner Bea Alonzo, earned P156,577,763 million at the local box-office.
A Very Special Love (2008), which tested the fresh pairing with singing sensation Sarah Geronimo, then raked in P176,451,302 million, not counting screenings abroad.
That double whammy earned him the title Box-Office King from the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Foundation for two consecutive years—but it proved only a patikim for what would come next.
On June 22, 3010, two days before his 27th birthday, he's again set to be crowned Box-Office King—making him three times triumphant, three years in a row. You Changed My Life (2009), the sequel to the John Lloyd-Sarah teamup, earned a staggering P208,851,149 million at the local box office, making it the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time!
Of this honor and hype, he says frankly, "Para sa akin, I think it's a really special award dahil, sabi ko nga, when I reach my fifties or sixties, and I look back do'n sa mga contribution ko in this industry...parang it's nice to reminisce your younger years in the business, knowing na years 2007, 2008, and 2009, parang pinakamaraming nanonood ng pelikula mo. It's a really special award sa akin, dahil ang trabaho naman namin is kung gaano karami 'yong gusto naming ma-reach do'n sa ginagawa namin, di ba?"
His next two projects, while not extraordinary successes like You Changed My Life, both came close to the impressive P140 million mark, one closing in on that number and the other surpassing it. The mother-and-gay-son drama In My Life (2009)—for which he won 2010's best-actor honor at the Star Awards—scored P137,459,053 million. Last February's reunion with Bea Alonzo, Miss You Like Crazy, a less-flighty-than-usual romance, registered a P149,100,000-million gross in its seven-week run.
